Wisdom Quarterly

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Saturday, 11-4-11: 3:30 pm meditation and Dharma teaching guided by Against the Stream, south steps. SEIU Health and Wellness Fair at OLA covering addiction, mental health, both the physical and spiritual. Clinicians, counselors, mediators, 12 steppers will be there.

Sunday: 2:00 pm, Interfaith Affinity Group meeting and to discuss plans for Nonviolence Day. Less about planning and more about sharing and being together in a spiritual setting. 3:30 is a Compassionate Communication class.

COUNCIL OF ELDERS Sunday, Nov. 20th, 3:00 pm: Noted civil rights leaders Rev. James M. Lawson, Dolores Huerta, Rev. Canon Malcolm Boyd, Dr. Maher Hathout, Rabbi Leonard Beerman, and others from many of the defining American social justice movements of the 20th century. They will lead a service of solidarity and host a conversation with Occupy demonstrators and others. Similar event with other notable elders will be held in San Francisco.

Everyone is invited to join a Sitting Meditation and Silent Peace Walk at Occupy Los Angeles. We will send positive intentions out into the world.

Let us be the change we want to see in the world -- as we generate the combined energy of mindfulness, calm reflection, loving-kindness, and insight. The 99% and the 1% are worthy of happiness and compassion. Let's sit and walk for protestors as well as police, slum lords and slum residents, householders and homeless. Poverty, unemployment, greed, and corruption are more than a domestic issue. Help create an environment for the 100% to come together in meditation and share the intention of creating peace, harmony, and freedom for ALL beings.

Simple acts contribute to a major paradigm shift. Why? Peace in ourselves creates peace in the world.

Friday, November 18, 2011

I, Ananda, liveIn the fullness of freedomFree of empty habitsNot an empty Abiding

The Path to Freedom

I hear tell: Once upon a time, the Lucky Man [Tathagata, the Buddha], in Savatthi-town, East Park, in the House of Migara’s Mother came visiting.

At this time, Ananda, just emerging from his afternoon’s sit down practice, went to the Teacher, greeted him, and sat down to one side. There he said:

Sir, at one time, the Lucky Man was residing among the Sakyans [the Buddha's extended family clan] in the market town of Nagaraka. And I also was there. In that place I recall having heard, learned, studied, grasped, face-to-face with the Lucky Man, this statement made by him:

"At this time, Ananda, I reside in the fullness of emptiness." Did I hear this correctly?

Yes, Ananda, you heard, learned, studied, and grasped this correctly. Previously, as well as now, I reside in the fullness of freedom.

In the same way, Ananda, as this House of Migara’s Mother is free of the disturbances of the city: free of elephants, cows, horses, donkeys; free of dealings with gold and silver; free of groups of men and women, and there is only this that remains to disturb the peace, that is, the vibration emanating off the recluses here.

In the same way, a recluse, paying no attention to the disturbances of the city, paying no attention to human beings, pays attention only to the vibration emanating off the forest. One takes to paying attention only to perception of the forest. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind.

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of the city. This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of human beings. This way there is only that disturbance which emanates off perception of the forest."

Thus, "This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the city. This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of human beings. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the vibration which emanates off perception of the forest."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being; this is."

Thus, Ananda, there is in this case a sitting-down-to-clear-out that results in surpassing purity.

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to human beings, paying no attention to the forest, one takes to paying attention only to perception of earth, and cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind.

In the same way as one would regard a bull’s hide, stretched out to cure, held down by a hundred pegs, its life gone, when one pays attention to Earth, one does not think about anything on Earth such as dry land or rivers or swamps or marshes with plants with branches and thorns or mountains or plains. One only pays attention to the vibration which emanates off perception of Earth.

One takes to paying attention only to perception of Earth. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."...

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to the forest, paying no attention to Earth, one takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind.

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of the forest. This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of Earth."

Thus, "This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the forest. This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of Earth. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the vibration which emanates off perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."

Thus, Ananda, there is in this case, a sitting-down-to-clear-out that results in surpassing purity.

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to Earth, paying no attention to the Sphere of Unlimited Space, takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Consciousness. And one cleans out, tidies, up and liberates the mind.

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of Earth. This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space."

Thus, "This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of Earth. This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the vibration which emanates off perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Consciousness."

...[O]ne takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere Where No Thing is There. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to the Sphere of Unlimited Consciousness, paying no attention to the Sphere Where No Thing is There, one takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere of Neither Perception Nor Non Perception. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to the Sphere Where No Thing is There, paying no attention to the Sphere of Neither Perception Nor Non Perception, one takes to paying attention only to the mental High-Getting that is Sign-less. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the Sphere of Neither Perception Nor Non Perception. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the six sense-realms bound to this body reacting to life."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."

One understands, "This Mental High-Getting that is Sign-less is something that has been constructed, thought out. Whatever has been constructed and thought out is subject to change and coming to an end."

Knowing and seeing this, one's heart is free from the grip of sense pleasures. One's heart is freed from the grip of illusory existence. One's mind is free from the grip of blindness. In Freedom comes the knowledge of Freedom, and one knows:

"Left behind is Rebirth, lived is the Best of Lives, done is Duty’s Doing, crossed over am I; there is no more of this [suffering in rebirth] for me!"

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from the grip of sense pleasures. This way there is no disturbance emanating from the grip of illusory existence. This way there is no disturbance emanating from the grip of blindness."

Thus, "This way is free of the disturbance emanating from the grip of sense pleasures. This way is free of the disturbance emanating from the grip of illusory existence. This way is free of the disturbance emanating from the grip of blindness. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the six sense-realms bound to this body reacting to life."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."

Thus, Ananda, there is in this case, a sitting-down-to-clear-out that results in surpassing purity.

And, Ananda, all those shamans [shramana, Buddhist monastics, wandering ascetics] or brahmins [brahmana, temple-bound priests] of the long distant past who attained [are attained or will attain] the highest surpassing purity of freedom and made it an abode, all of them did so by attaining this same highest surpassing purity of freedom and making it an abode....

Wherefore, Ananda, train yourself this way: "I will attain the highest surpassing purity of freedom and make an abode of that."

BALI, Indonesia (AP) - Seizing an opportunity for historic progress in repressive Burma (Myanmar), Pres. B.S. Obama is dispatching Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the long-isolated nation next month in an attempt to accelerate fledgling reforms.

The move is the most dramatic sign yet of an evolving relationship between the United States and Myanmar, also known as Burma, which has suffered under brutal military rule for decades. Obama said Friday there had been "flickers of progress" since new civilian leadership took power in March.

Responding to signs of reform, Myanmar's main opposition party, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, decided on Friday to register again for future elections after boycotting last year's voting.

"If Burma continues to travel down the road of democratic reform, it can forge a new relationship with the United States of America," Obama said as he announced Clinton's trip while on a diplomatic mission to southeast Asia. Clinton will be the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Myanmar in more than 50 years. More